Job-tracking tech in the dealership service bay helps spot inefficiencies

As a shop foreman at Barbour-Hendrick Honda Greenville in North Carolina, Chris Tucker often suspected service operations could be more efficient. But like many harried fixed ops supervisors, he didn't have the time or data to verify his assumptions.

"You sometimes ask yourself why things take so long," Tucker says. "But that was based on assumptions ... there really was no easy way to actually know how long it takes to perform oil changes and other tasks."

Now there is. Last November, Barbour-Hendrick's service department began using Bayley job-tracking devices from Service Write Inc. in two express service bays.

Three months later, the results are so encouraging that the dealership — part of Hendrick Automotive Group — plans to install the technology in its 17 full service bays as well, Tucker says.

In October, for example, the average elapsed time between creating a repair order and getting the vehicle up on a lift was 34 minutes. Now, it's down by half, to 17 minutes.

In addition, it took technicians an average of 11 minutes to start multipoint inspections in October. Now, the average is three minutes and 30 seconds, about a 68 percent decrease.

Moreover, the average time spent waiting for service advisers to notify technicians whether customers approved or declined service recommendations now averages eight minutes per vehicle compared with 17 minutes in October — around a 53 percent reduction.

Each technician also now turns 1.9 more hours a day and works on an average of one more vehicle per day, compared with October, Tucker says.

And the faster customers receive service recommendations, the more likely they are to approve them, he adds.

"If you don't get to them quickly, they check out mentally and decline services because they want to get going," he says.

The technology motivates technicians to work more efficiently, too.

"They've told me that because they're being timed, they're working faster," he explains. "Staying on task and on goal become personal objectives. But we tell them they don't have to be the fastest, just consistently efficient.

"It also creates friendly competition," he adds. "No one wants to be behind the person working next to them."

Marcus Aman, a former fixed ops director, and Peter Seymour developed the cloud-based Bayley technology, which incorporates machine learning and artificial intelligence. It has two hardware components: a large touch screen that hangs on a lift mount and a sensor that mounts to any two- or four-post bay.

The sensor detects when vehicles enter and leave a service bay. Technicians use the touch screen to indicate when they stop and start various tasks in a repair order.

Aman's elevator pitch: If supervisors can tell how long it takes technicians to make certain repairs, for instance, or how long it takes to get service approvals, they could eliminate bottlenecks.

In turn, that would boost customer satisfaction and revenue because repairs would go quicker. Moreover, technicians would be happier because by turning more hours, they'd earn more money, he says.

Service managers typically only know when a repair order is created and closed. What happens in between remains a gray area, Aman notes.

"Inefficiencies are a super big problem," he says. "We want to speed up the service process from the technician to the service adviser to the customer."

The collected data, which is viewable in real time, also helps managers identify technicians who need coaching in certain areas and to assign repairs to technicians who do them the fastest. Better efficiency also reduces the need for more technicians, he notes.

Three dealerships currently use the Bayley technology, with 109 more awaiting installation, Aman says.

The costs are a $500 installation fee per bay and a monthly charge of $250 per bay, with a volume discount for 20 or more bays, he says.

"We guarantee a return on investment that's three times the annual cost," he says.

Aman believes technicians generally don't resent being tracked — especially if their pay increases.

"It's not a Big Brother-type deal," he says. "It just helps increase efficiency through actionable data and holds everyone accountable — from technicians to parts employees to service advisers and managers.

"Bayley removes assumptions — makes the unseen seen," he concludes. "Knowledge is power. If you can't measure something, you can't manage it."